Cerberus
by babies-stole-my-dingo
Summary: Niska decides to take vengeance on Mal by stealing a crewmember or two to sell into slavery. Jayne has to figure out how to protect River while he's being tied up and tortured...A couple of alternate scenarios added.
1. Chapter 1

**Title:** Cerberus  
**Author:** babies stole my dingo (agilebrit)  
**Fandom:** Firefly  
**Rating:** PG-13 for rather considerable violence  
**Length:** Short story (just under 3000 words)  
**Disclaimer:** Joss is the genius behind these characters; I am but a lowly follower. I make no money from any of this, so please don't sue me.  
**Feedback:** Concrit adored! If you see something that can be improved upon, please let me know.  
**Written for:** Another one of those rabid Plot Rottweilers. You always hurt the characters you love...  
**Notes:** Niska decides to get back at Mal by selling a crewmember or two into slavery. Post-"Objects in Space," pre-BDM, so River's still crazy but not as nutty as she was at the beginning.

* * *

Jayne looked like a kicked puppy. "Aww. Do I hafta?"

"Everyone else is busy, Jayne." Mal wasn't budging. "It's just for a little while. Here's a commlink if you get in trouble and need bailing out. Besides, it'll do you good to get off the boat."

"Won't do me no good to babysit the crazy girl," he growled, shoving the earpiece into his pocket.

River stood beside them, watching the dialogue like a ping-pong match. Inara had done something to her hair, Mal noted, and it looked right pretty, held on top of her head with pins and such and out of her face for once.

"I'm terribly sorry that you'll be inhibited from drinking and whoring with her along, but she hasn't had a chance to go shopping in awhile. We're far enough out that the Alliance won't be sniffing for her. Girl doesn't get to look at pretty things, she gets a mite frustrated. You wouldn't want River getting frustrated, would you?" Mal was enjoying this. Wasn't often his mercenary was discombobulated. "She might start thinking you look better in red again, she gets frustrated."

"Gyah! Let's go, girl," Jayne said to River. "Sooner we go, sooner we come back."

Mal tossed her a couple of coins. "Buy yourself something fun."

Her face lit up with a rare smile. "Thank you. He'll protect me. All bark, no bite."

"I'll show you biting," Jayne muttered.

Mal smacked him on the arm. "Be nice."

:-:

The merchant district looked like every other merchant district of every other backwater world Jayne had ever been on. Stalls and storefronts sold everything imaginable and a few things that weren't. Noisy, crowded, and chaotic, the place was a nightmare for anyone concerned about security; the constant jostling, the hawking of the barkers, and the real possibility of losing River amidst the multitude kept him from being bored, at least. He tried to keep a hand on her back or her elbow so they wouldn't get separated, but this weren't the easiest job Mal'd ever sent him on.

River stopped at a booth selling art supplies and looked wistfully at the colored pencils and various sizes of drawing pads the vendor had for sale. She checked the prices, checked the amount Mal had given her, and opened her mouth to start bargaining, when she was bumped into by someone in the crowd. She protested, but someone else shouldered her--then a third man pushed her again, while the first one maneuvered around Jayne. The throng of people in the market prevented him from going for a weapon, although River's panicked expression told him right enough that he probably needed one.

Before he knew exactly what had happened, or how, he and River had been shoved into an alleyway so casually as to make it look accidental. Three other men waited there with stun batons. Jayne reached for his knife with one hand and his gun with the other, but they zapped him before he could bring either of them into play.

As he lost consciousness, he heard River whisper, "Niska."

:-:

River awakened on the floor in a cinderblock room, metal shackles around her wrists and ankles, connected by chains locked to a ring on the wall. She looked up and saw that Jayne was fastened by his wrists, ankles, and waist to an X-frame arrangement, shaking his head like a big bear and starting to come around. She was fairly certain that Mal wouldn't approve of the language issuing from his mouth.

She sat up and noticed a table behind Jayne. A series of malevolent implements, some she recognized and several she didn't, were arrayed on it, and a cold chill settled over her as she realized what they meant.

Three men also populated the room; they were different from the ones who'd taken her and Jayne off the street. Two were large and muscular in a meaty sort of way, not fat exactly, but not defined like Jayne was either. The other was a small, fussy-looking man wearing a natty suit and wire-rimmed glasses. "Niska."

He walked over to her and stared down curiously. "Ah? You know who I am?"

"You have a reputation. People fear you." But he was afraid too. The assault on his skyplex had made people talk behind their hands. If a ragtag bunch of insignificant space pirates could best Niska, maybe he wasn't as powerful as everyone said. This worried him; she could feel it--but she wouldn't say so. Doing that wouldn't be good for her health. She shrank into herself a little, trying to look as harmless as possible. At this point, Niska's underestimation of her was her only weapon.

"That is right, little girl. And now I make sure that reputation does not suffer any more because of Malcolm Reynolds." He gave her a fatherly pat on the cheek, which made her wish fervently that she could scrub it with lye soap.

"Leave her alone," Jayne said, frowning thunderously and testing his bonds. "She don't know nothin'; she don't got nothin' to do with any of our business."

"No? She is with you, is she not?" Niska turned his back on River and stared at Jayne. "My men tell me you seemed very concerned for her welfare in the marketplace."

"She ain't a member of Mal's crew." She had one microsecond of hurt feelings before he said, "She's my cousin." The lie startled her. He was taking the order to protect her seriously, and the best way to protect her in this particular situation was to make Niska think that she wasn't related to _Serenity_ in any way. "She's a little _fong luh_; half the time she don't even know what's happenin' around her. Leave her out of this. Let her go."

"Perhaps I do that. Later. If no witnesses, then no talk about what happens to people who...how you say? Cross me?" Niska nodded at one of the henchmen, who picked up a cat o'nine tails from the table and popped it a few times with an evil grin.

Jayne snorted. "You think you can scare me with that bitty thing?"

"Perhaps not," Niska acknowledged. "But I am fairly certain we can hurt you with it."

River couldn't help counting the blows that began raining down on Jayne's back. And doing the math. _One times nine is nine...two times nine is eighteen...three times nine is twenty-seven..._ She closed her eyes and flinched every time the whip landed. Jayne's thoughts were jumbled, but he wasn't afraid. Angry; she was used to that. Concentrating on not giving these bastards the satisfaction of hearing him holler. Mostly thinking about how Mal would kill him if anything happened to her--and more frightened of Mal than of Niska, which she thought imprudent under the circumstances, especially by the time she got to _Fifty times nine is four hundred and fifty..._ She opened her eyes when the sounds stopped.

And saw the henchman switch hands.

Jayne half-leaned forward on the frame where it crossed itself, gasping for breath between clenched teeth, blood running in rivulets down his back and soaking into his shredded t-shirt and his trousers. "That...all you got?"

Niska raised his hand, stopping his thug before he landed another blow. "Perhaps we try something a bit...more." He nodded toward the table, and the other thug--she began thinking of them as Minion One and Minion Two, just to keep them apart, even though they were really interchangeable--picked up a chain scourge and positioned himself behind Jayne. The links made obscenely musical sounds as they clinked together, and each of the five chains had a small spiked metal ball at the end that glittered in the light.

This was worse by an order of magnitude than the cat had been. The force of the strikes slammed Jayne's stomach against the X-frame, and she could swear she heard ribs splintering. He endured it in as much silence as he could, but he couldn't prevent some noise. River leaned her head against the wall and closed her eyes again, tears leaking in a steady stream from beneath her lids--counting, because she couldn't turn that part of her off any more than she could stop her heart beating. _One times five is five. Two times five is ten. Three times five is fifteen..._

They stopped at twenty. She risked a peek and slammed her eyes shut again, unable to bear the sight of a semi-conscious Jayne hanging by his wrists and shaking like a leaf. All that blood...how could he lose so much and live? Her own shaking was making her teeth chatter.

"Much better." Niska's voice grated on her ears. "But I think we are not done just yet."

Jayne unleashed another gasping torrent of colorful language, and River's eyes snapped open, seemingly of their own volition. She stared in horror as Minion One brought what looked like a battery for some sort of engine over in front of Jayne. A wire connected the posts, leading up to some sort of device with a bare metal end and a push-button.

Minion One pushed the button a couple of times, making sure he had current, then tore the remains of Jayne's bloody shirt off and pressed the metal end against the bared chest. Jayne's body jerked spasmodically as the electricity coursed through it...and this time, he couldn't help it; he screamed.

River closed her eyes and counted off the seconds in her head. When she got to five, the sounds stopped, and she sneaked a glance before quickly shutting them again. Jayne had a burn mark on his chest, and the scent of scorched hair filled the room. He'd bitten his tongue as well.

"Ah, yes." Niska sounded satisfied. "Certain forms of pain are fundamental. Again, if you please."

Three more times, taking five seconds longer each time. Twenty seconds lasted an eternity. Jayne was fading fast, and all she could do was huddle against the wall with her arms over her head. "Please stop please stop please stop," she babbled over and over.

Footsteps, and Niska stood over her. "You wish us to cease hurting this man? You would rather we perhaps hurt you, instead?" He seemed genuinely curious.

"Don't. Touch. Her." Jayne's words came out in a low, raspy growl.

She had to stop this. They were going to kill him if it kept on any longer. She looked Niska full in the face. "He's no good to you dead. A dead slave can't work." Niska's eyebrows crawled up his forehead. "That was your plan, to sell him into slavery. Make the Captain pay through the nose to get him back, if he could even find him...and even if he did get him back, he'd be a broken toy. No more winding up the Mercenary Action Figure clockwork and making it go anymore. Cerberus becomes a puppy, gate to Hell open, unguarded, for good." She rummaged a little. Jayne's head wasn't someplace she _liked_ to spend time, but she was relieved that his mind was mostly intact. They hadn't killed the essential part of him just yet; having very little imagination was an asset in a situation like this. His body, though, was breaking down. It couldn't take much more.

Niska turned back to Jayne. "Your cousin, she is a very clever girl. Once more, please," he said to Minion One.

River screamed with Jayne this time, and joined him in unconsciousness.

:-:

She awakened to the sensation of movement. She was still chained, but not attached to anything. Jayne, where was Jayne? She sent out a questing probe and found a tiny spark. He was here in this room with her...wherever "here" was.

She wrinkled her nose. Old animal smells, hay beneath her. Light coming through vertical slats in the walls. Livestock truck? Not on a road, too smooth. Livestock car in a train, then. But no actual cows, which was nice, and no one in the car but her and Jayne. Apparently, Niska thought they were trapped and had decided not to waste any men guarding them.

Time to make his underestimation of her work to her advantage.

She pulled one of Inara's pins from her hair and went to work on the locks of her shackles.

:-:

Jayne floated. His back was on fire, his skin felt as if it wanted to vibrate off his muscles, and he was freezing and sweating all at the same time...but it all seemed like it was happening at some great distance. He wondered, clinically, if he was dying. Didn't seem to matter much. Couldn't move, anyway--fastened to the floor somehow, wrists and ankles, on his side. Niska still thought he was a threat. This struck him as pretty comical, considering the fact that any attempt at motion sent shooting sparks of agony through his entire body.

A small hand laid itself on his cheek, briefly, and then he felt someone working away at whatever had him tied to the floor. A few moments later, he was freed. "Jayne?" River's voice. Oh, shiny, she'd got out. "Don't you leave, Jayne, you hear me?" He weren't goin' nowhere. Couldn't, nohow. "Stay awake. _Wuo me da_, if you die on me--" Huh, it mattered to her if he died? That was new. Well, he should make some effort, then.

He opened his eyes--and that seemed to allow a huge granite boulder of pain to come crashing on top of him. He shut them again, quickly, but it didn't help. He felt River flinch beside him. The job. Do the job. "Commlink...in my pocket," he said between teeth that chattered, no matter how hard he tried to clench them shut. "Don't think...they got it." He was so cold.

She scrabbled around and pulled it out. "Captain?" he heard a few seconds later. "Can you hear me?" Then she moved out of his earshot.

:-:

"River! Where are you? Did that _tama de hundan_ try to turn you in to the Alliance again? I swear, I'll put him out the airlock for real this time--"

She interrupted his rant. "It was Niska. Not Jayne's fault. He's..." She swallowed convulsively. "It's bad, Captain."

"Are you okay?" His voice was suddenly gentle.

"I'm fine. They didn't hurt me. Only made me watch." She huffed out a small, humorless laugh. "'Only.' It's Jayne. They..." She couldn't finish.

"All right. We've got a fix on your position, but you're moving. What have they got you in? Focus, girl."

Right now she was focused on finding something to cover Jayne with. He was shivering like an over-energized superstring. "A train. We're livestock, branded and sold."

"Okay, we can work with that. Are you loose? Can you move around?"

"Yes." A discarded horse blanket, crumpled in a corner, caught her eye. Perfect. She folded it in thirds and knelt down next to Jayne, arranging it over his shoulders and smoothing his hair back, trying to soothe her injured watchdog. Part of her wanted him to go to sleep to get away from the pain, and part of her was afraid that if he fell asleep, he'd never awaken again.

"Look up. Should be a ventilation door up on the roof. If you can slide it back, we can get you out."

"I see it. Just a minute. Jayne? Don't die. They're coming for us."

:-:

He passed out when they moved him to a hanging stretcher, and woke up in the infirmary awhile later. The Doc had worked his magic with the painkillers, and Jayne was all floaty again. The Captain sat on a stool beside the bed. "I done the job, Mal." Jayne's voice was a hoarse, slurred wheeze. "They din't hurt her."

"River said it was Niska and his men?" Mal asked quietly.

"Yeah. That li'l sumbitch is gonna kill one of us one of these days." Jayne closed his eyes. "We oughta do somethin' about him."

Mal made a noncommital noise and stood up. "Get some rest. You done all right, Jayne."

Weren't often he got praise from the Captain. Felt kinda good, he thought, even if he did have to get beat near to death watchin' over the crazy girl for it to happen. Speakin' of the crazy girl... "River's okay?" His mind started going fuzzy 'round the edges.

"River's okay," was the last thing he heard as he fell asleep. Right before he went out, he thought a hand touched his head from behind.

Mal met River's eyes across Jayne's recumbent form. "And my mercenary's okay, little reader?"

"You can wind him up and make him go when the repairman is finished fixing him." She grimaced at Jayne's back. "Mostly cosmetic damage, scratches and dents. Nothing wrong with the actual mechanism, structure, or motherboard."

"Ye-eah. I'm very disturbed that that made perfect sense to me." He gave her a questioning look. "You gonna stay with him?"

"The guardian doesn't require a guardian in this place, but that lack of need isn't taken into consideration by human psychology." Mal frowned, not understanding, so she clarified, "He'll feel better if someone's here when he wakes up." She settled onto a chair as Mal started to leave. He paused at the door and looked over his shoulder; his last view of the infirmary, before he headed out to do Captain-y stuff, was of River running her fingers through Jayne's hair as if he was her own special, injured Bullmastiff.

It made him smile, just a bit.

_finis_


	2. Alternate Ending

**Title:** Cerberus, Mark II   
**Author:** babies stole my dingo (agilebrit)  
**Fandom:** Firefly  
**Rating:** PG-13  
**Disclaimer:** Joss is the genius behind these characters; I am but a lowly follower. I make no money from any of this, so please don't sue me.  
**Feedback:** Concrit adored! If you see something that can be improved upon, please let me know.  
**Written for:** Alternate ending to "Cerberus." Blame an anonymous reviewer at FFN (someone named "ljae") for this...this..._thing_. S/he wanted to know what would happen if they didn't get rescued right away. Well. Jayne's just been beaten severely with a cat o'nine tails and a chain scourge, and electrocuted a few times. What do you _think_ would happen if he couldn't get medical attention? He's a human man, not a vampire.  
**Notes:** Niska captures Jayne and River and tortures Jayne for awhile, then sells them into slavery. This part starts on the train and goes off wildly from there...  
**WARNING: CHARACTER DEATH**

* * *

Jayne floated. His back was on fire, his skin felt as if it wanted to vibrate off his muscles, and he was freezing and sweating all at the same time...but it all seemed like it was happening at some great distance. He wondered, clinically, if he was dying. Didn't seem to matter much. Couldn't move, anyway--fastened to the floor somehow, wrists and ankles, on his side. Niska still thought he was a threat. This struck him as pretty comical, considering the fact that any attempt at motion sent shooting sparks of agony through his entire body.

A small hand laid itself on his cheek, briefly, and then he felt someone working away at whatever had him tied to the floor. A few moments later, he was freed. "Jayne?" River's voice. Oh, shiny, she'd got out. "Don't you leave, Jayne, you hear me?" He weren't goin' nowhere. Couldn't, nohow. "Stay awake. _Wuo me da_, if you die on me--" Huh, it mattered to her if he died? That was new. Well, he should make some effort, then.

He opened his eyes--and that seemed to cause a huge granite boulder of pain to come crashing on top of him. He shut them again, quickly, but it didn't help. He felt River flinch beside him. The job. Do the job. "Commlink...in my pocket," he said between teeth that chattered, no matter how hard he tried to clench them shut. "Don't think...they got it." He was so cold.

She scrabbled in his pocket and came out with nothing. Cringing, she rolled him back a little and tried the other one, while he bit back some colorful language. "Not there."

"Well, hell." _Think, Jayne._ But thinking through the pain and the chill was hard. He concentrated and pulled some information out of all the sensations around him. "We in a cattle car?"

"On a train," she confirmed.

He took as deep a breath as he could. She was gonna hate him for this. "Should be a ventilation door up on the roof that you can slide back and climb out of. We stop, you leave me and get the hell out. _Dong ma_?"

"Leave you? But--"

"Yes, _leave me_," he said fiercely, opening his eyes and staring her in the face. "I can't--" _Stabbity pain in the back OW..._ "Shape I'm in, I can't protect you, so you'll have to do for yourself. You ain't safe with me." Her eyes went all big and shiny, and he closed his own. "Don't look at me that way. You know I'm right."

"Doesn't mean I like it."

"Ain't askin' you to like it. Promise me." No answer. "Promise. Me."

A long enough pause that he nearly opened his eyes again, and then, "I promise." He barely heard her, but it was enough.

"Good girl."

He felt her touch his shoulder once, lightly, and after that it was just too much effort to fight the hurt anymore. He let it wash him away into oblivion on a freezing hot wave of torment.

:-:

River's hand trembled as she sat back. Damn him. Damn him for sending her away, and escaping into unconsciousness before she could muster an argument. She rose to her feet and started exploring their temporary prison. A discarded horse blanket in one corner and an empty feed bag crumpled against the wall gave her something to do besides worry. She folded the blanket in thirds and draped it over the still form of her wounded watchdog; gathering hay, she created a makeshift pillow by stuffing it inside the feed bag, and slid it under his head.

_A train goes east at a hundred and fifty miles an hour_, she thought. _How far will it go in four hours and thirty-five minutes?_ Simon had always hated those word puzzles. She'd breezed through them just like she breezed through everything else, but this particular conundrum was confounding her. Fine, get off the train when it stopped.

Then what?

She was used to hiding. Making sure they didn't find her was the least of her worries. But getting back to the ship, and rescuing Jayne? If he even lived. He was deeply unconscious; she was afraid he'd never wake up. He'd lost a vast amount of blood, was still losing it, and the horse blanket hadn't stopped his shivering. She had no way to stop the bleeding on his shredded back, no way to replace what he'd lost, and no other way to warm him up.

He was going to die, right there in front of her, and she couldn't do a thing about it.

She pulled him up into her lap and arranged the blanket around both of them, resolutely pushing the words "dead weight" out of her brain. When had her eyes started leaking? She didn't know. Stupid eyes. Not like she and Jayne had been best friends or anything. She wrapped her arms around him and rocked back and forth while the car darkened with the coming of night and his blood soaked into her dress.

She began to wonder if the train would ever stop. They'd gone hundreds of miles already, and each hour added over a hundred more--and decreased the chance that help would reach Jayne in time. His breathing had started hitching in his chest, the shivering hadn't stopped, and he was getting colder. Nothing was in his head, not even dreams. She held him closer, willing him to hang on just a little longer.

It didn't work. As the rising sun lightened the still-moving train, he slipped away from her, never awakening. One last exhale, and then he was gone. She shook him a little, but she knew he wasn't coming back, not from this. Closing her eyes, she pressed a kiss to the top of his head and laid him gently on the floor. She smoothed his hair back one last time and stood up.

The best she could do for him now was escape.

The train slowed, finally, and the irony wasn't lost on her. Now that it didn't matter, they'd reached their destination. She climbed up and slid the ventilation door back. When they stopped, she levered herself up and out and closed the door behind her.

Their car was located toward the back end of the train, and she leaped to the ground on the opposite side of the depot as two men approached from that direction. "Should be two in here," one said.

"Hope they're in better shape than the last ones Niska sent us," the other grouched, opening the door. River watched through the slats as they climbed in and stopped next to Jayne's body. "Well, hell." He knelt down and felt for a pulse. "This one's dead." He stripped the blanket off and stared sourly.

"He must have really pissed the little guy off. Jeez, look at his back. Wonder where our other one is." He walked around, kicking at the loose hay, and found River's discarded cuffs. "Oh, shiny. Long gone, no doubt."

"Remind me again why we do business with Niska?"

"Because we don't want to end up like him?" He gestured down at Jayne.

"Oh well. Let's dump the body in the desert and go back to work. Not like any money's changed hands. Send Niska a wave, let him know what happened."

River found a bush to hide behind as they came around the end of the train, carrying Jayne's body between them. They tossed him into some scrub, still griping, and she noted the spot. They'd want to recover him when she called _Serenity_.

She waited awhile until she was sure they'd left the area for good. The train pulled out of the station, and she stepped over the track and found the wave terminal at the depot. Several idlers gave her sidelong glances, and she realized that she was still covered in blood and probably looked rather crazy as well. Crazier than usual. She gave them a What-are-you-looking-at stare and punched up the ship.

"River?" Mal's expression was startled. "Where in the name of all that's holy are you? Did that _tama de hundan_ try to turn you in to the Alliance again? I swear, I'll put him out the airlock for real this time--"

She felt as if she'd been stabbed in the gut, and it took all her control not to curl up into a ball and make the world disappear. She interrupted Mal's rant. "It was Niska. Not Jayne's fault. He's..." She swallowed convulsively. "It's bad, Captain."

"Is that blood? Are you bleeding? Where's Jayne?"

"Not my blood. Jayne's. Should have been on the inside, but it was on the outside and it was too much, far too much..." She felt her face crumple and the tears start. "He did the job. Kept me safe. Oh, God..."

"I've got a fix on you, girl. We'll be there in less than five minutes. Keep talkin' to me."

The words came pouring out in a high-pitched, hysterical flood. "They beat him with whips, over and over. They hurt him, so much, but he didn't break, didn't tell them who I really was. Then they put us on a train, cows, sold, and he made me promise to leave him, still trying to keep me safe...I couldn't stop the bleeding, and he was shivering so hard. I tried to be strong enough for both of us, but I couldn't, we were there for hours, and he, and he--"

"River." Mal's voice turned gentle. "It's not your fault, _bao bei_. Where is he?"

She closed her eyes and said it out loud for the first time. "He's dead."

:-:

Of all the things she could have said, Mal wasn't expecting that. "He, wuh, huh?"

He'd been spending every spare second in the cockpit, waiting for word after River and Jayne had disappeared off the face of the world. They'd nearly had to sedate the Doc, he was so _gou tsao de fong luh_ with worry. Kaylee had basically locked herself in the engine room, and the Shepherd and Inara had been prayin' mighty hard together. Then the wave had come from over a thousand miles from where they'd left them, and that poor little girl, covered with blood, with that particular message...

Wash, normally unflappable when he was driving the boat, let out with a violent twitch when he heard what she said, and _Serenity_ jinked hard to the side, once, before he brought her back under control. "Mal?"

Mal held up his hand. River was still talking, the words coming faster and faster as if she couldn't hold 'em in no more. "I tried, I tried to keep him warm, but he just kept shivering, and his head was all fuzzy and then it just wasn't _there_ anymore and he stopped breathing--" Her voice cut off with a choking sob and she slid down out of view.

He could still hear her, crying. "How soon, Wash?"

"Less than a minute. Here we go."

Mal got on the intercom. "We've found them, people. Look lively. Zoe, guns. Lots of guns. It's bad."

:-:

Not a single one of them had thought that Jayne would be the first of them to die. The big man had too great a sense of self-preservation, they all figured. Doing his Captain-ly duty of going through Jayne's stuff the next day, Mal was very surprised when he found a will in a box under his bed. The box also contained the occasional letters Jayne had received from his mother, a collection of brightly-colored knitted hats and scarves, several dog-eared magazines filled with pictures of naked women, a few other keepsakes he'd apparently picked up here and there on his travels--and a wad of cash in an envelope marked "Mom."

The will wasn't written, of course. It was made on the same sort of recording device that Tracey had used. Mal wondered if Jayne had gotten the idea from his old army buddy. He thumbed the switch, and the well-remembered voice filled the bunk.

"We're in a dangerous business here. Any one of us could get taken out, any second. So I reckon I oughta leave somethin' so's all this here stuff gets taken care of proper. Mal, you and Zoe c'n split up my weapons store any way you like between you. Take good care of Vera, and she'll take care of you. Let Simon have the girlie mags so he'll know what goes where when he finally makes his move with Kaylee." Mal snorted out a laugh. "Make sure my momma gets the money in the envelope, and y'all can divvy up whatever else is in here any which way, don't much matter. I'd like to be buried at home, and for the Shepherd to say some words over me, if he don't mind overmuch and if it's even possible. And...I guess that's it. If you're listening to this, it's because I'm dead. Try not to miss me too much. Oh, and give River a big old kiss on the lips from me, 'cause it'll give Simon a heart attack."

Simple words for a simple man. Mal put the recorder in his pocket and climbed up the ladder. He needed to give Wash some co-ordinates.

:-:

The weather should have been gloomier, River thought, but the sun seemed determined to shine through all their misery. Funerals were for the living to remember the dead, and they were all mourning this one more than any of them thought they would. Shepherd Book said some things that she didn't pay any attention to, and Mama Cobb put a half-done knitted cap in the coffin before they closed it.

River flinched every time the dirt hit the metal as they filled in the hole. Jayne had been so vital, and now he was so still, and she couldn't help but blame herself. Logically, she knew she couldn't have done anything, but her emotions--which she couldn't shut off--told her different. She should've told Niska who she was; he would've stopped the beating before it went too far; she could've saved Jayne. His blood may have been washed off her hands, but she didn't think the stain would ever really come out.

Having to go to the Cobb house afterwards was just a continuation of the torture. His family was too understanding, too solicitous, too nice--and they _meant_ it, which made it worse. They'd all heard the story, how their boy was a great big hero, but she wasn't exactly proud of her role in the damsel-in-distress fairy tale...and the prince wasn't supposed to die. She wondered if Mal was going to slay the Niska-dragon.

Simon hovered protectively over her, one of his damned needles at the ready in case she started freaking out again. She finally brushed him off and went outside, before she became overwhelmed. It was all too much, and she found a quiet spot by the barn and sat on the ground, wrapping her arms around herself and trying to calm the raging storm inside.

A black and white dog with floppy ears and a docked tail approached her and put his head on her knee, gazing at her with sorrowful brown eyes. "You feel it too, don't you?" she asked him. She put her hand on his head, and he snuggled up next to her with a dog-sigh.

Mal found her that way awhile later and sat down, cross-legged, in front of her. "Simon's worried."

"Simon's always worried." She put her head back against the barn wall and closed her eyes. "None of us liked Jayne, and we were all wrong about him. What does that mean?"

"Darlin', you're askin' the wrong person to try to find meaning in a meaningless 'verse. The Shepherd would be a better man for that question."

She revised her earlier statement. "Book liked him. He was the only one of us who did. I wonder what he saw that the rest of us missed."

"He was a better man than any of us knew. Guess you and Niska got to meet the 'real him.'"

"Shan Yu. Niska is a fan. He has a slimy mind." She opened her eyes and gave Mal a pleading look. "Can we go home? Please?"

"Sure, baby." He rose and held his hand out to help her up. "Let's go."

:-:

She wandered around the ship that night, finally stopping by the weight bench in the cargo bay. Besides the kitchen, this had been Jayne's favorite spot. She lay back and closed her hands around the cool metal of the bar, not trying to lift it, just wanting to touch what he'd touched.

"He's not gone, you know," said a quiet voice in the shadows.

She frowned a little, not because of the words, but because she nearly felt as if an invisible someone had wrapped his arms around her. "You're a Shepherd. You're supposed to say things like that. Comfort the afflicted." She sat up.

Book sat on the bench beside her. "I'm not sure there's any comfort to be had in this situation, but as long as we remember him, he'll live on for us."

The ethereal hug seemed to tighten, just a little. "He saved me. He could have told Niska who I was to save himself, and it never even crossed his mind to give me up. So focused on doing the job Mal had set for him..." Her lips tightened. "The soul is an illogical construct made up by humans to make us feel better. There's no evidence for its existence. Heaven and Hell violate the laws of physics."

"No, they bypass them. But you have to think beyond the tangible. Just because we can't see it, or we think it violates some sort of physical law that we don't completely understand, doesn't mean it doesn't exist. It just means that we can't see it. You can't see the wind, but you can see its effects. I can't see God, but I know that He affected me, changed me." He put his hand on hers. "You've been educated, River, in secular science that actively denies the very possibility for supernatural explanations, and that's closed your mind. Open it a little, try to see beyond what you can touch and feel."

"You truly believe that this isn't all there is?" She very much wanted to think that some part of Jayne would go on. He deserved more than to just be food for worms.

"I truly do. And I didn't mean for this to turn into a sermon. You just looked quite alone, like you could use a friend."

"Thank you," she whispered. "I like the idea that he hasn't gone from us. Watching over _Serenity_, our own personal guard dog turned guardian angel..."

The Shepherd snorted out a laugh at that. "Jayne, as an angel? An amusing and somehow not as terrifying thought as it would seem at first blush."

She laughed with him, her first real laugh since her ordeal. The phantom arm around her shoulders tightened one more time, then disappeared, and her hair swirled in a breeze that had no visible cause while a rough chuckle echoed in her head.

No. He hadn't left them.

_finis_

* * *

**A/N:** Please remember, this is an _alternate ending_. If you like the other one better, you can snuggle it instead. Don't hate meeeee... 


	3. Alternate Middle

**Title:** Cerberus, Mark III   
**Author:** babies stole my dingo (agilebrit)  
**Fandom:** Firefly  
**Rating:** PG-13  
**Length:** This section, about 1800 words.  
**Disclaimer:** Joss is the genius behind these characters; I am but a lowly follower. I make no money from any of this, so please don't sue me.  
**Feedback:** Concrit adored! If you see something that can be improved upon, please let me know.  
**Written for:** The Muse is going wild on this fic. Yet another alternate scenario.  
**Notes:** An "alternate middle." What if River had offered to tell Niska who she was in order to stop the torture? Starts after the chain scourge.

* * *

Minion One pushed the button a couple of times, making sure he had current, then tore the remains of Jayne's bloody shirt off and pressed the metal end against the bared chest. Jayne's body jerked spasmodically as the electricity coursed through it...and this time, he couldn't help it; he screamed.

River closed her eyes and counted off the seconds in her head. When she got to five, the sounds stopped, and she sneaked a glance before quickly shutting them again. Jayne had a burn mark on his chest, and the scent of scorched hair filled the room. He'd bitten his tongue as well.

"Ah, yes." Niska sounded satisfied. "Certain forms of pain are fundamental. Mr. Cobb, are you familiar with the writings of Shan Yu?"

She had to put a stop to this. They were going to kill him if it kept up any longer. "Warrior poet," she answered for Jayne, who wouldn't know in any case. "'Live with a man forty years, share his house, his meals, speak on every subject. Then tie him up and hold him over the volcano's edge, and on that day, you will finally meet the man.' You're taking a shortcut."

"I'm an old man; I can't wait forty years," Niska said with some amusement.

"Would you like to meet the real me? I have a secret." She was going to have to be very careful about what she was about to do.

"And what secret would Jayne Cobb's cousin have that would interest a businessman such as me?"

"A two-hundred-thousand-credit secret."

Jayne wrenched against his restraints. "Shut up, girl! Don't listen to her; she's nuttier than my ma's pecan pie. Weren't you electrocutin' me or something?"

"Hush, Jayne. Bad doggy. Crazy girl knows what she's doing." River made some calculations. She was going to have to make Niska come close, quite close, for her plan to work. "I'll have to whisper it to you, though. Don't want them to know." She nodded at the minions. "Not for them, just for you. Wouldn't want you to have to share."

Niska was tickled by her audacity, somewhat, but also intrigued. "And what do I have to do in exchange for your secret?"

"Leave him alone," she said promptly. "Turn him loose without hurting him anymore, and never have anything to do with him again."

"Gorramit," Jayne snarled. "I won't have you--"

She cut him off. "Not for you to decide, anymore. I can make my own choices. I choose this."

"And I accept," Niska said. "This experience has proven very educational. You are willing to sacrifice much for one another." He motioned to his henchman, who stepped away from Jayne while he raged incoherently.

River shook her head. "Noisy puppy. You'll have to come quite close, Mr. Niska. Jayne is objecting very loudly."

He squatted down beside her. "All right, little girl. Tell me your sec--urk!"

He wasn't expecting someone so small and harmless to move so fast. She scissored her legs around, catching him across the chest and throat and pinning him to the floor with his neck caught in the crook of her knee. However, she wasn't exerting pressure...yet. She still had things to accomplish. Dancer's muscles held him helpless, although his nails scraped at her legs while he flailed around. "You might want to stop that," she said conversationally, tightening her grip on his throat just a little, as a warning. He stilled instantly. "Tell them to unchain my puppy and give him his teeth back."

He hesitated, and she clamped down a touch more. His eyes widened. "Yes, release him, please. Return his knives and gun."

Jayne had stopped swearing and was staring at her in disbelief. He grabbed the x-frame support to keep from collapsing when Minion Two undid his shackles. He rested for all of two seconds before he straightened determinedly. The aspects of the minions had changed from gleeful-threatening to uncertain-fear.

"No, unlock me and give me the gun. Jayne's angry, would probably use the gun. Can't have that."

Jayne snorted. "I wouldn't fire a gun in here. Noise'd likely bring the whole place down around our ears."

Minion One released River, gave her the gun, and stepped back. She noted his position and that of his partner--and coolly shot them both dead without looking. "Room is soundproofed," she said, before Jayne had a heart attack. "Niska knows about psychology. Different person to clean up the mess each time; whispers carry faster than screams. Right?" She smiled brightly down at the man she still held in the grip of her legs.

Niska's breath was coming in short, quick gasps. "I will give you...whatever you want..."

"Shh. First I have to tell my secret. Made a bargain, after all." She leaned down and whispered in his ear. "My name is River Tam, and the government would give you two hundred thousand credits if you turned me over to them. However--" She put the gun down and placed her hands on either side of his head. "You're not going to be able to do that."

:-:

And just like that, she snapped the little sumbitch's neck. Jayne reminded himself (again) to never, ever get on her bad side. She stood up and dusted her hands off. "He gave me what I wanted. We should go. The others will be worried."

Jayne took a step and stumbled, his head going all fuzzy from blood loss. The girl was beside him in a flash, draping his arm over her left shoulder while she brandished the gun in her right hand. Holding him up. Well, that weren't proper. "I'll get blood all over your dress," he protested, trying to push her away.

"Of course you will, you big boob. Think I care? It'll come out. Stop that." She batted at his hand. "Grab your commlink off that table and let's get out of here."

"Wait, where are we? Are we in Niska's skyplex? 'Cause that would be all kinds of bad."

"He has warehouses and buildings all over the system. This is one of them. Safe on the ground. Can we _go_ now?"

Do the job. Get her back to the boat. _Then you can collapse,_ he told himself. Wouldn't do to fall down in front of her, so he let her hold him up, because his legs weren't doin' their job at all. Thankfully, they didn't have to kill anyone on their way out, because the way River had just shot those two right between the eyes without even looking was downright freaky; and as much as he admired anyone who could handle a weapon like that, he wasn't sure he wanted to see it again.

They stepped out of the building and into the sunlight, blinking in surprise at the fact that Niska had put his torture chamber right beside a pretty shiny park, with grass and trees and squirrels and benches. A fountain sprayed sparkling water into the air. River guided them over to where a maple tree spread its branches over an inviting patch of green, and they collapsed together. She handed him his gun, and he holstered it clumsily. World was goin' _real_ fuzzy...

It snapped back into focus when he realized that her face was in her hands and she was crying. Well, hell. He never knew what to do when womenfolk started up the waterworks, and sittin' here with his back on fire and a metallic taste in his mouth from nearly passing out weren't helpin' none. "Aw, babydoll, don't do that." He patted her awkward-like on the shoulder. "You done real good back there. Better'n I did. You came up with a plan and got us the hell out. And you weren't hardly crazy at all."

"I killed those men." Her voice was muffled. Suddenly he found his arms full of girl as she threw herself at him and sobbed on his chest.

Startled him for a second, it did, but just for a second. He never expected any of the crew to come to him for comfort, least of all this one, but he guessed that he was the only one available right now. He stroked her hair gently, like he was taming a skittish horse. "Them men needed killin'. 'Member what they did to Mal and Wash? What if he'd got ahold of Kaylee?" Now, there was a thought didn't bear thinkin'. "Not that you should get used to killin', because you shouldn't. Cap'n wouldn't like it and neither would your brother. You ain't a stone-cold mercenary like me, and that's how it should be."

"They're not the first I've killed. Oh, God. The Academy turned me into a monster..."

"You ain't a monster. Saved me. Saved us both. You done what you had to." Had he got the shakes this bad, first time he'd killed a man up close and personal?

"Not my first." He twitched; she was reading his mind again. "I killed one of the doctors at the Academy." She hiccuped. "With a pen."

"That's pretty personal," he acknowledged. "But you ain't as crazy now as you was then. Hits you harder when you're sane, I reckon. All this means, girl, is you're dead normal. Reg'lar people don't get used to takin' lives. I don't take no pleasure in it myownself. You'll be all right." Time to call the ship and get them off this rock, sooner rather than later. His back was still leakin' pretty steady, and that weren't doin' nothin' good for his head, which was starting to feel mighty thick.

He fumbled the commlink into his ear. "Cap'n? C'n you hear me?"

"Jayne? Where the hell are you? I swear, I'll put you out the airlock for real this time, you tried to turn River in to the Alliance again--"

Jayne choked at the absurdity. "Hey! Weren't my fault this time. Niska's men took us off the street. Little crazy girl..." He petted her hair again, and noticed that the spots exploding across the world weren't stopping this time. He started to fall sideways, caught himself on his hand, and sank down into the cold, welcoming grass. "She saved us. Saved us both..."

And then his vision went black, and he didn't know anything for a good, long while.

* * *

**A/N:** This is a sort of alternate middle, and the rest of it happens where Mal, River, and Jayne are in the infirmary. This fic has been a very interesting ride for me; it's the first time I've ever gotten a what-if AU--or more than one!--for one of my own stories. I'm not going to stick a "COMPLETE!" in the summary of this one, because I'm not sure it is. Heh. 


End file.
